Claim: Media Bolsters Myth that Suicides Increase During Holidays

By: E&P Staff Has the media in the past week bolstered what many consider a myth -- that the suicide rate in American shoots up during the holiday season? That view has reappeared lately, in the wake of the death of James Dungy, 18, the son of Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy.

But writing in USA Today on Tuesday, columnist DeWayne Wickham points to an Annenberg Public Policy Center report released last week, which revealed that the suicide rate in this country actually drops to its lowest level during the winter and peaks in the spring. Yet, last year, the Center said, 32% of newspaper stories it looked at supported the myth that suicides soar at the end of the year.

"These stories are more than just a measure of bad reporting," Wickham writes." They fuel a myth that can produce a deadly ripple effect."

He cites an Annenberg director who warns that such stories can "produce suicidal contagion. ... There is high likelihood that someone who is thinking about suicide will in turn kill themselves."